


Your soulmate

by AniZH



Category: Victorious (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-10-23 12:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 10,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17683241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AniZH/pseuds/AniZH
Summary: On your eighteenth birthday, the name of your soulmate appears on the inside of your wrist. Nobody expects to meet their soulmates before that and it's also rare to happen. Beck and Jade meet when they are fourteen.





	1. Birth

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my new story that's pretty much my one shot The name on your wrist (https://archiveofourown.org/works/5721910) in "long". I put long in quotes because this won't be all that long. I will have about 14 chapers (I think) but all of them will be as short as this one, as that's the style I want to go with for this story. But with as short as those chapters are, I plan to post a new one every other day.  
> Please enjoy! :)

It’s late November and they’re at the hospital.  
Mary’s in labor and Maximilian doesn’t know what to do. She’s in pain and he can’t help her. Not that he’s usually good at helping her, but he’s trying his best.  
Right now, he isn’t even trying. He’s way in over his head.  
And after hours and hours, she is finally there: their daughter. A little screaming thing that’s somehow extremely beautiful.  
They take the baby away and wash it before lying it into Mary’s arms.  
Maximilian tentively steps next to her, looking at the baby girl in her arms. His baby girl.  
Only after a while, he notices Mary looking at him. He returns the look.  
With a soft voice, Mary asks, almost desperate: “We’re going to make it, aren’t we?”  
It shouldn’t be a question. They are soulmates. They have each other’s names written on the inside of their left wrist since they’ve been eighteen.  
But the thing is... It is a question. Their whole relationship seems like one big mistake.  
They were happy at the beginning. Maximilian enjoyed how Mary had her heart on her sleeve and how steady she always kept. And he’s sure, she enjoyed his directness and how he always stayed calm and collected.  
They haven’t been enjoying each other for two years now after that first year of happiness. Mary’s too impulsive for Maximilian sometimes. She claims, he’s too cold.  
They fight and are angry with each other a lot. But they always pull together again, because... they are soulmates.  
They also pretend in front of everyone else that they’re happy. Because soulmates have to be happy with each other. They love each other forever.  
Maximilian isn’t sure if Mary ever truly loved him. He isn’t sure he ever loved her. It feels awful.  
But he nods now. They’re going to make it. Especially with a child. A child he never really wanted but as it meant everything to her... They will make it now. Because they have to. If not for each other, then for this little baby girl.

 

It’s January and Nathaniel couldn’t feel happier. His beautiful wife Leah, his best friend and soulmate, is giving birth right now. To their son. He feels absolutely blessed.  
He’s doing everything to help her. He’s making sure she’s drinking enough. He’s wiping the sweat off her forehead with a soft towel. He’s offering her small snacks every time she isn’t in pain. He’s talking in a soothing tone to her. He’s holding her hand and doesn’t pull a face when she squeezes it in a way that makes it feel like it’s falling off.  
And then, he finally has the baby in his arms. His baby. It’s dirty and strange looking and yet the most beautiful little thing Nathaniel has ever seen.  
He’s giving him to Leah who takes him and cradles him in her arms. Her face, only shortly before contorted in pain, shows the softest smile Nathaniel has ever seen. He wonders how it’s possible for him to fall even deeper in love with her, this beautiful, amazing and warm woman.  
“Hi, little one,” Leah greets the newborn. “I’m your mommy. Over there is your daddy.”  
She breaks one hand away from under him, but only to gently stroke with it over the boy’s head that already shows some short hair.  
“Aren’t you precious?” Nathaniel hears Leah whisper. “We love you so much.”  
They do. They both already love him as much as they love each other, which is an incredible amount.  
He can’t help but smile and he feels tears in his eyes. He needs to lean down, put his hand on the back of Leah’s head and put a soft kiss on her forehead. It’s like a promise. A promise to always protect her and their beautiful son.


	2. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to an especially short chapter! Thanks for the kudos on the previous one. :)

They’re fighting a lot. She often imagines herself in other places, when they go at it again.  
One day, her dad leaves. He doesn’t come back for a few days.  
Then, her mom sits her down, when she’s home from preschool.  
“Your daddy and I will get a divorce.”  
She doesn’t understand. “Aren’t you soulmates?”  
Soulmates don’t get divorced. They stay together forever. That’s what all the fairytales say. That’s what all the people say.  
“I don’t think we are,” her mom just answers and hugs her. She doesn’t hug her back because she doesn’t understand.  
How does her mom not know? Isn’t there some sort of sign? Don’t you just... know?  
The next weekend, her mom brings her to Dad’s new apartment. She visits him every other Saturday from then on. Her parents don’t talk anymore.  
All the teachers in her preschool look at her with sad faces. She’s now officially the child of people who aren’t soulmates. She hears one of them say to another that maybe that’s why she’s sometimes a little odd, likes playing by herself. Because she never learned what love was. But she knows what love is, doesn’t she? Don’t her parents still love her, even if they don’t love each other?

 

He’s sitting on his mommy’s lap. She humming a soft song while reading through some important letters.  
Her left hand lies in his lap.  
He has turned the arm around, so it’s lying upside down and he can see the inside of her wrist.  
He’s stroking over the word that’s written there. The name of his daddy.  
He can’t read but he knows it’s the name of his daddy. Just like on the inside of his daddy’s left wrist is the name of his mommy. Because they’re soulmates.  
He knows that that’s special and wonderful. They tell him about it. They tell him about the beautiful love they have for each other and that the names on their wrists prove that the universe meant them to be. And that therefore, he was meant to be, as the child of their love.  
They tell him that on his 18th birthday, on the exact time he took his first breath eighteen years prior, a name will also appear on his left wrist and he will finally know the name of the person he will love more than any other.  
He wonders what their name will be. He hopes that the other person will be happy when they meet each other and it turns out he’s their soulmate. He wonders sometimes if all the soulmates are happy right away when they meet, introduce each other and realize they’re soulmates.  
His parents were happy. They always talk about their first meeting and how quickly they grew comfortable with each other. How they moved in with each other after a month and than married a month later. He wonders how it will be for him.


	3. Seven

Jade’s seven. Her mother dated around. Jade met a lot of those guys but always knew that she shouldn’t get too attached, as neither of them was named Maximilian though that was supposed to be her mother’s soulmate’s name.  
But suddenly, there’s a Maximilian. And her mother tells her that he’s her soulmate. Jade sees her mother’s name on the inside of his wrist when they first meet.  
But that doesn’t mean anything, does it? Her father’s name is Maximilian as well and he also has her mother’s name written on the inside of his wrist. They also thought they were soulmates.  
She questions her mother, especially as she forces Jade and that guy to spend a lot of time with each other, telling Jade that she wants him to move in with them soon.  
“He’s my soulmate, Jade.”  
“You thought that about Dad too and look what kind of mess that got you in.” Her mother doesn’t know it, but Jade knows that she cried through many nights because of the divorce.  
“It’s different this time,” her mother claims. “It’s not just the names that match.”  
Jade doesn’t get it and her mother sees. Promptly, she explains: “I tried to be with your father because I thought we were meant to be. With Max... I’ve never felt as safe as I do in his arms. I feel something so deep in my heart, every time I talk to him, that I know he’s the one. His voice resonates through my body. I... I never felt like this before. You will understand when you meet your soulmate.”  
“I doubt it,” Jade dryly says. Her mother always gets so... invested. She’s almost certain if she could’ve talked to her mother, back when she first met her father, she would’ve heard the exact same words. Her mother also fell in love with some of the other men she dated, despite knowing they weren’t her soulmate, despite those relationships just being for fun and to pass time for both parties involved until they met their soulmates (or for the men to not be alone after their soulmate already passed away), and she told Jade how good they made her feel.  
Jade’s sure this will end with her mother being crushed once more. Maybe, this soulmate thing is a rouse anyway.

 

His parents tell him about soulmates all the time. He’s also curious.  
They tell him how special it is to have your soulmate in your life. How they make everything better and are always on your side. How you share everything and don’t need to use any words to understand each other and yet you never stop talking to each other.  
Beck likes that thought. But when he watches his parents sometimes, he also knows he doesn’t want exactly what they have. It’s somehow... too smooth between them. He can’t describe what irks him about it.  
He’s sure his parents love each other and that they do agree on almost everything, that everything between them is this smooth. But it still irks him. At least the thought of having something like this himself. He knows, if he always would agree on everything with someone, he would become worried – if they only agreed – that it isn’t actually their opinion but they agreed because they don’t dare to disagree or something.  
He has a friend like that. Well, he doesn’t like calling him his friend anymore after he realized that that boy always does what he, Beck, wants to do, even if he doesn’t feel like it. That that boy only wants to please him, so they would stay friends. As if Beck’s friendship is something to strive for.  
The thought of his soulmate doing that... not expressing what they want, so he wouldn’t leave them...  
He wants a relationship where he always knows the other one is truly themselves. And the way he would know that is his soulmate and him not always agreeing. He wants that. He wants them to bump heads sometimes.  
He wonders if he’s strange for it but he reads a little about soulmates and reads that all relationships are different and everyone needs something different in their soulmate and their relationship. Well, his parents might need the constant harmony and he doesn’t. Could that be? Maybe, he’s just to young to know what he really needs.  
Either way: He does want all the love that he witnesses between his parents. He wants to feel as close to another person as his parents do to each other. He wants to feel as comfortable with someone outside of his family.  
And somewhere inside of him he has the feeling that soon enough, he will have that person in his life. His soulmate.


	4. Thirteen

Max hates her and her mother doesn’t care.  
They’re long married by now and have a son together. Jade loves her little half-brother Jasper. He’s three and is mostly the only person that she feels close to.  
Obviously, she also loves her mother and her mother loves her but... she never defends her.  
Max pretends in front of her that he doesn’t mean all the mean comments he makes about Jade. He says they’re only jokes and Jade’s mother believes it. Jade knows it’s not true. He means all of it.  
He especially likes to be mean about her not being a child of soulmates. Jade knows it’s because he’s insanely jealous that his soulmate made a child with another man. Jade is proof that her mother once thought another man her soulmate. It isn’t Jade’s fault but Max doesn’t care.  
He often “jokes” that she probably doesn’t have a soulmate. How can she when she didn’t get born out of a soulmate-relationship?  
Her mother scolds him for that thought when she overhears him saying it to Jade but he grins as always and says that he’s obviously joking. She lets it slide. She doesn’t leave him for it.  
Jade reads up about it. She can’t be the only child out of a non-soulmate relationship. Is it true that she won’t have a soulmate? She doesn’t find anything about it. But everything she reads says that absolutely everyone has a soulmate. So she must have too.  
Though... What does she care? Does she want one? When she sees what her mother lets Max say to her, Jade... Jade knows, if she ever has a child, she would defend it at every cost. She already does with her little brother. She doesn’t want to fall for someone in a way that doesn’t make her want to do that anymore. She doesn’t want to allow anyone to insult the people she loves.  
When she sees her father with his new girlfriend – and apparently, soulmate –, it also sickens her more than anything.  
She doesn’t want any of this. So even if it’s true what Max is saying... even if she doesn’t have a soulmate... Who cares?  
Who cares if she dies alone?  
She starts dating, shortly before she turns 13, with Max of course making a lot of jokes about it. But she isn’t searching for a soulmate. She just wants to get out of the house and wants to have fun. Creeping boys out on dates is fun. She also starts to enjoy the kissing.

 

Beck starts dating after just turning 13. He likes connecting with people. He likes getting to know the different girls he goes on dates with.  
It’s fun and his parents encourage him to go on dates.  
“It’s great to get the experience,” his mother says with a smile, looking over to his father. “Though remember that some things are only for your soulmate.”  
There were conservatives that thought you shouldn’t date at all unless it’s your soulmate. And others that thought that you at least shouldn’t date around as soon as you know your soulmate’s name, so as soon as you’re 18.  
His parents are fine with him dating but he knows that they only allow him dating and kissing unless it’s his soulmate. It’s not supposed to be in any way serious. Just a way to meet people and to understand how to behave on dates, how to be a gentleman, to learn what other people expect.  
He doesn’t worry about it ever turning serious except with his soulmate. He’s sure it won’t.  
He likes dating but he doesn’t even feel the need to turn one of those girls into his girlfriend, to make them exclusive.  
But he does wonder how it will feel with his soulmate. How different will it be to be on a date with them? How differently will they connect? Will it be different?  
He tries to imagine his soulmate that he guesses will be a girl by now. He finds he isn’t attracted to boys. But what will this girl look like that’ll be his soulmate? When will they meet?  
He’s full of questions but he knows that it still could take years and years until he gets to meet his soulmate. Yes, he still feels like it’ll happen soon, but he guesses he at least will have to wait until his 18th birthday to even know the name of his soulmate.  
Well, and until then, he’ll enjoy dating around, connecting to different people.


	5. Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day!  
> This chapter is the only one that's not in two parts and written about Beck and Jade seperately as this is their meeting and the joining of their souls. ;P The rest of the story will go back to having a part out of Jade's perspective first and then one out of Beck's.

They catch each other’s eyes before the Math class they share. It’s the second class of their first day at Hollywood Arts and the first time they consciously see each other.  
They both sit in the second row from the front, two seats apart and only casually looked at each other, only for their eyes to lock into each other.  
Beck can’t help but smile. This girl is looking gorgeous!  
Her eyes flicker to his smile, then back to his eyes. For a moment, it’s just that, then she looks him up and down, as if sizing him up. He wonders what she’s thinking.  
But he’s sure to somewhere see a small smile before she turns away from him.  
That’s that. And somehow, Beck’s interested. He notices her in the hallways over the next few days and weeks, likes watching her in their shared classes and at lunch sometimes. She’s different than so many other people he knows. She’s darker somehow, doesn’t seem to give a damn about anything, but at the same time is extremely passionate about acting, as he notices during that class that they share.  
It’s not like she doesn’t notice him too. There’s something about him. Obviously, he’s extremely good looking but there’s more to him. He’s not just some pretty boy and she has been sure to have noticed that the first time they looked at each other.  
She’s right. She sees his own passion for acting in specific but also realizes he handles himself well in every other class, effortlessly finds his way through every new topic. She’s into smart people, she can’t help herself.  
And somehow, she sees something darker about him. It isn’t all like it seems with him. There’s something in his eyes that tell her that he’s fascinated by creepy things as much as she is.  
Maybe she’s wrong about him. Maybe he’s just a boring pretty boy.  
She’ll see. A month after having seen each other for the first time, he asks her out. She agrees to go on a date with him. Why wouldn’t she? She’ll see who this boy is. If her feeling about him is right... Usually, her feelings about people are right.  
Beck feels immensely happy about her agreeing on the date though he doesn’t show it. He already witnessed her denying other people. He doesn’t know why she apparently finds him different than other boys but he’s glad about it.  
He wants to know more about her so badly. Not just because she seems unapproachable or pretty. Gosh, is she pretty. But he enjoys the faces she pulls in class when somebody says something stupid, how she snorts sometimes then. She’s unapologtic about her humor and he likes that. Because as far as he gathers they have a similiar humor and he doesn’t like to let that side of him through as his parents never liked it. He enjoys how Jade doesn’t seem to worry about what other people think about her.  
He wants to get to know her, wants to know what she’s about and how similiar and yet different they are.


	6. Getting together

She can’t believe how much she enjoys his company. They’re dating for two months, seeing each other every Friday and Saturday outside of school, which means they don’t really have time to date anybody else. That’s at least the case for her. They haven’t talked about it yet. She doesn’t know if he still dates other girls next to her.  
They also eat dinner for another evening of the week.  
That’s the dinner they are at now. It’s a Tuesday and they’re eating at Jade’s favorite sushi place.  
“I don’t have time this weekend, by the way,” Beck randomly says at one point.  
Jade can’t help but be amused though she doesn’t like that that means they won’t be able to spend any of the weekend together. The thing is... It’s not like they ever said they would spend every weekend together. Beck could’ve just as well waited it out until Jade would’ve asked him if they would go on a date on Friday. But he acts like that’s a given and not going on a date is the exception. That’s how she feels about it.  
She makes a joke out of it: “What? On a trip with some other girl?”  
Beck answers with a grin: “More with my grandparents. They’re coming to visit and as I don’t see them all that much...”  
She gets it. “Where do they live?”  
“Canada. Close to Vancouver.”  
Jade blinks. Oh, wait. “You aren’t from Canada, are you?”  
“I am. My parents and I moved here when I was seven.”  
Okay. That explains a lot. “I knew there was something wrong with you,” she jokes. It’s just... No, of course she doesn’t have anything against Canada or Canadians. Why should she? But she likes the jokes about them being too nice. Just to have that country and those people you can joke about without really hurting them because they aren’t actually bad off. They are well and Jade likes to joke about people who have it good instead of those who already lie dead on the ground.  
Beck understands that she’s joking but asks with a laugh: “What’s wrong with Canadians?”  
“Too polite.”  
“Am I too polite?”  
He isn’t serious. “A whole lot.” He is totally overpolite at times. It’s getting better around her.  
He smiles at her and then, suddenly: “I haven’t seen another girl for more than six weeks by the way.”  
He’s referring back to her question about what he’s doing on the weekend.  
“Oh,” she makes. He felt like he should say that apparently.  
She feels her heart going faster.  
“Yeah,” he only makes.  
Okay. “I haven’t seen another boy for about the same time, I guess.”

 

He feels his heart racing. So it’s not like this is one-sided. He also never thought so. Jade wouldn’t go on all these dates with him if she wouldn’t have enjoyed it. And how much more time did she have next to their dates to date someone else?  
But he was afraid that maybe this didn’t mean as much to Jade as to himself. That he didn’t mean as much to her as she did to him, though yes, they totally did an improvised scene in their acting class and pretended to be a couple there. She did that with him, which made him think after he noticed.  
And if she now says that she also hasn’t dated around... She wouldn’t if she didn’t want to be exclusive too, right?  
“I also don’t want to see other girls.”  
“Then you need to close your eyes.”  
They know each other well enough already that Beck knows that Jade needs to make a joke because this makes her nervous, but in a good way.  
“Jade,” he gently says but she is the one asking: “You want to get together?”  
“If you’re willing.”  
She only nods and he can’t help but grin before he leans over to kiss her.  
When he gets home later, he still feels like he’s floating. This beautiful, smart, amazing girl with her dry humor actually is his girlfriend now.  
His parents of course notice his mood when he walks into the house and right into the living room where they’re sitting.  
“You look happy.”  
“I got together with Jade.”  
“What?” Beck’s mother makes and both parents exchange a look before Beck’s father adds: “A girlfriend, Beck? Are you sure you should have one?”  
“What’s the problem with that?”  
His mother quietly answers: “You’ll have a soulmate.” Quietly as if Beck’s future soulmate could hear her having to remind him otherwise.  
“I know.” Everybody has a soulmate. “But not for another... what? Four years?”  
Well, he technically might already have a soulmate except his soulmate is more than fourteen years younger than him and not even born yet. That’s at least how most people see it. That you’re soulmates from the day both of you are born. But only on your eightteenth birthday you get to know their name due to it appearing on your wrist.  
“Three,” his mother corrects him. His fifteenth birthday is coming up.  
“That’s still so far away.” Who cares if he has a girlfriend now?  
“But what do you plan to do?” his father asks. “Tell your soulmate that you had a girlfriend before?”  
“Why not? You know, people do that.”  
But his parents are so conservative , so uptight, so... ugh.  
“Which doesn’t mean it’s right,” his mother says.  
“It’s right for me!” Beck answers. And what does he want with a soulmate anyway that wouldn’t accept him having been happy with another girl years before he even knew their name?

Later that evening, his father comes into his room and gives him the sex talk, just in case. He says you only should have sex with your soulmate, but as he understands that it can be difficult and if Beck thinks he needs to have a girlfriend... he better wants to be safe – nobody wants a child that’s not one of soulmates (not to mention from teenagers) – than sorry.


	7. Love

She understands what her mother talked about – what she still talks about – when it’s about Max.  
She still doesn’t understand how her mother can let that man be so awful to her, Jade.  
But she remembers how she questioned her mother’s choice for Max, how she questioned how her mother could be sure that that man is her soulmate after Jade’s father wasn’t. She remembers her mother’s answer. How safe, she said, she felt in Max’s arms. How she felt something so deep in her heart, every time they just talked. How his voice resonated in her body.  
Jade thinks about that when she lies in Beck’s arms like she does right now. Beck has moved into the RV. They’re a couple for two months now. He’s spooning her on the bed while they’re watching TV.  
And it just... she fits into his arms perfectly. She feels so immensely safe whenever they lie like this. As if nothing could ever touch her, could ever hurt her.  
When she isn’t around him, the thought almost scares her. She realizes how much he can hurt her, especially because she feels so safe around him. Because she trusts him so much. He could break her. But when she’s in his arms she knows he never will.  
And yes, there is something so deep inside of her pulsating when they even just talk. No matter if on the phone or in person. Hearing his voice but also seeing his smile in person or on a photo... Reading his texts, just them exchanging thoughts and comments.  
“I love you.”  
The words slip over her lips, before she can think about it.  
Her heart starts beating fast, just like back when they got together.   
But this doesn’t scare her. It can’t. Not while she still lies in Beck’s arms.  
Though it’s the first time either of them have ever said those words. Though it could happen that he tells her he doesn’t feel the same way.

 

Beck feels the warmth speed through him. He can’t believe it.  
He nuzzles his nose into her neck, drops a short kiss there before he reponds: “I love you, too.”  
He does. He loves her so much that he can’t really believe it. How can that be true? How can you love someone like this after you didn’t even know them more than half a year ago?  
He says it all the time after that first time, after he knows that Jade feels the very same way.  
Eventually, his parents overhear. He hasn’t tried to keep it a secret from them. He was in the house with Jade to get something out of his old room and said it there and then.  
His parents don’t say anything right away though they must’ve overheard. They talk to Beck during dinner though when Jade is already home.  
They pretty much flip out. They exchange two calm sentences before a real fight ensues.  
You shouldn’t say that you love them to anyone but your soulmate.  
“But I do love her!” Beck states clearly.  
“Nonsense,” his mother makes and his father: “I don’t want you to see her again.”  
“You can’t forbid me anything,” Beck spits out, panic racing through him just at the thought of never seeing Jade again.  
He leaves them sitting there and locks himself in the RV, not opening though they knock for a long time.  
They fight a few more times because of it before his parents have to accept that he will do what he wants, especially not break up with Jade or stop telling her how he feels about her.  
The thing that he doesn’t want to say to them is that he actually thinks she is his soulmate. He doesn’t dare saying that to anyone. Do soulmates ever meet before their names show up on each other’s wrists?  
He especially doesn’t dare to talk to Jade about it. He doesn’t want to frighten her, doesn’t want to drive her away by pretty much saying that he thinks they will stay together forever when they are only fifteen years of age as of now.  
But sometimes he thinks she feels the same, that she also believes they could be soulmates.


	8. Fighting

She needs to have a soulmate. And she needs it to be Beck.  
They are seventeen by now and Jade’s birthday is fast approaching. It makes her panic inside. How good are the chances that she and Beck are soulmates? She might feel like nothing else can be true but they aren’t high at all, she knows.  
She tries to read up more on it and apparently it happens that at least one of the soulmates is younger than eighteen when they meet and sometimes even both but it rarely happens. Most meet when they are in their twenties or thirties.  
And then, her stepfather’s words still linger in her mind. About her having no soulmate at all.  
She never read anything close to that claim but sometimes she gets scared. What if that’s true? What if she doesn’t have a soulmate?  
Though, even worse: What if she has one but it’s someone other than Beck?  
She can’t imagine loving anybody more than him. Her love for him already almost rips her apart at times.  
But no matter if she has no soulmate or another than Beck... he will have another one as well than. She can’t have that. She can’t stand the thought of him with someone else.  
Yes, she wants him to be happy. She loves him. But him with someone else?  
The thought takes all the air out of her.  
She knows there’s a big chance that she’ll stay with Beck no matter what her wrist says after her eighteenth birthday. But Beck won’t. She knows him. She knows him so damn well and as soon as there’s another name on her wrist, he will start thinking too much about what they have and what they don’t have. If there’s no name on her wrist, he will only start thinking as soon as one shows up on his own wrist and it won’t say Jade.  
She’s so damn scared. She doesn’t want to lose Beck. She can’t lose him.

 

She gets insanely jealous at times. As if he would have eyes for anyone but her. Seriously. She’s everything to him. He knows deep in his heart that they are soulmates. They have to be. And screw it if they aren’t. He wants to believe that they’ll stay together either way. Forever.  
The thing is that they don’t even stay together as it is. They are relatively stable at the moment. They haven’t broken up for a few months after their last big break which lasted a few months itself.  
But they always draw back together. They always have. Whenever they fight, they end up back in each other’s arms. Even when they were apart, they never really were. They always loved each other.  
That has to mean something, right?  
The fighting doesn’t show that they aren’t soulmates. He worried about that in between. Do soulmates ever fight that much? Nobody in his family does. Nobody he generally knows does.  
But he read about it and yes, it can happen. Some soulmates need to get couple’s counseling but only because they for some reason start to act like other people. They need to find back to themselves, each of them, and then, soulmate relationships do work out.  
Which doesn’t mean that there is not fighting between soulmates.  
Soulmates are exactly what they need from each other. And some people need a bit of fighting, a bit of trouble in their lives.  
Beck knows he does. He hated every time they broke up. He gets scared when they have bigger fights. But all that little bickering they do... he enjoys it. He also enjoys the make out sessions afterwards.  
And after their last big break up, they talked and found agreements to deal with bigger fighting. They don’t allow it to get that big anymore. They promised to come out and say what’s bothering them before it gets that bad the next time. They kept that promise until now and Beck knows he will keep it forever. Because he can tell Jade anything, can tell her if something doesn’t feel right or alike. And she can tell him and knows that too. They understand now what they have to watch.  
That’s how soulmates are. They don’t not have problems. They just work them out. Because they love each other, need each other and never want to be without each other.


	9. Jade

“Enjoy these last few hours with him.”  
It’s a mean-spirited comment. Like almost everything Max says to Jade. Like everything he says when nobody else is listening. Beck, her mother and her brother are lighting candles on the other side of the kitchen. Max has passed by Jade and whispered those words.  
It’s her eighteenth birthday today.  
Beck has slept over and this morning was the first time they talked about the possibility of being soulmates, when they both were awake far earlier than the alarm clock. Beck assured her that his name will show – and boy, does she hope so.  
Max must see how nervous she feels though she tries everything to cover it. That asshole enjoys it.  
“Fuck off,” she responds, loud enough that Beck turns to see what’s going on. Beck knows about Max’s behaviour. Beck knows everything that goes on in Jade’s life, just like she knows with him.  
Max smirks because he knows he’s getting to her and Beck makes sure to lie his arm around her protectively when he, her mother and her brother come back to the table.  
She doesn’t know what she’ll do if it turns out he isn’t her soulmate.  
Half past ten is the time on her birth certificate. She walks into the janitor’s closet after the class she has at the time. She has a wristband on to cover the name that should’ve shown up by now.  
Beck’s already in the janitor’s closet and she allows him to stay before she peeks unter the wristband, her heart almost jumping out of her chest by now.  
And then she reads it.

 

For a second she looks like the can’t believe it, then a wild grin spreads over her face and he knows it’s his name. Gosh. They’re soulmates. They are actual soulmates.  
He has to take a look himself and they kiss while he runs his fingers over his name on her wrist time and again. He can’t believe how good it feels that she’s marked with his name. She’s marked as his.  
Laughing, because they can’t stop laughing and grinning and kissing, they talk about being marked as each other’s and how Jade will still have to wait two months before Beck will be marked as hers.  
Jade also wants to trick their friends in thinking her mark doesn’t say Beck. Which Beck also has to laugh about.  
They decide to not necessarily trick them. But nobody knows when Jade was born exactly except her parents and Beck. Nobody knows that her mark has already shown up.  
And Beck and Jade might have always known or at least hoped for this to happen but now that it did, now that they have proof... Why not keep it to themselves for a little bit longer? Why not enjoy their bliss without everyone jumping on them? Especially their friends will have to say so much about this, they are sure.  
They want to tell their parents. Jade knows that her parents both will want to know, even though her father always acts like he doesn’t care, and both would be decent enough to not ask. You never ask about a soulmate mark, never ask about the name, to see or to know it. It’s fine to tell someone about your own mark but you don’t ask about somebody else’s. So her parents won’t, she guesses. But they will want to know the name and why not tell them right away?  
And Beck pretty much wants to rub it in his parents’ faces.  
But until then, they can enjoy this for themselves.


	10. Her parents

Jade’s father has half the day off – not because of his daughter’s birthday but out of coincidence because his boss had to close the business for half the day out of other reasons.  
He asked Jade to a late lunch after school and Jade agreed. She takes Beck with her now. He sometimes also takes his wife when they agree to meet up somewhere. Why shouldn’t she be allowed to have Beck with her? Especially on her birthday. And as Beck is her soulmate.  
Her father also barely pulls a face when they walk up to him together. He nods curtly to both of them as they sit down in the booth opposite to them, before he congratulates Jade on her birthday and hands her a gift.  
She waits until they have ordered and shortly talked about each their days at work and school, before she finally says: “As you might be wondering... My mark says Beck.”  
She pulls off the wristband she was still wearing and offers him her arm to read.  
He does, his face showing nothing, no surprise, no joy, no disgruntleness.  
When he looks up again, he doesn’t look at Beck, but Jade straight in the eye instead.  
“You’re sure he’s your soulmate?” he outright asks.  
And Jade gets the question after what her parents went through with each other. It doesn’t happen often but it happens. The name ‘Beck’ should be rare enough. But her father actually trusts her to know if the boy next to her is that Beck.  
She only nods, looking right back into his eyes and he looks at her for another moment, before he stands up with purpose and holds out his hand to Beck.  
Beck stands up too and shakes his hand.  
“Be good to her,” Maximilian says.  
And that’s the nicest thing Beck thinks he has ever heard from Jade’s father. Promptly, he smiles. “I’m trying.”

 

After that late lunch, they drive to Jade’s home together where Jade’s mother and her brother are already waiting – as well as her stepfather.  
Her mother greets them enthusiastically and offers them some of the birthday cake she got for Jade after work that her brother proudly gets to cut. They accept though they are pretty full from lunch.  
“Are you two okay?” her mother whispers after a while to Jade, as if Beck couldn’t hear her while talking to her little brother, though he’s sitting right next to Jade.  
“Better than okay,” Jade says. Beck also understands what her mother is on about and he turns his attention towards the pair, gently interrupting the conversation he had with Jade’s little brother. Promptly Jade turns her wrist on the kitchen table they are sitting at.  
Her mother looks down on it and her eyes widen. “It says Beck!” she calls out and runs her fingers over it as if she can’t believe it, before she looks back into Jade’s face, her own face lighting up. “Oh, my. Honey, that’s amazing! It says Beck!”  
“I know,” Jade says as in telling her mother that she knows herself what name it says, but can’t help but smirk as her mother pulls her up and into her arms.  
Beck feels warm just seeing it. The pure joy displayed on Jade’s mother’s face at the realization that her daughter already found her soulmate so early and that it’s Beck.  
Her mother then also hugs Beck while Max, who didn’t come with them into the kitchen at first but probably also wants his slice of cake now and therefore came back, witnessing his wife’s reaction, walks closer, raising his eyebrows: “You sure you didn’t put that on yourself with a marker?”  
“Max,” Jade’s mother says, pulling back from Beck appalled.  
“It was a joke,” Max says, putting a stupid grin on his face like he always does after he has let his wife seen his awful side. Beck despises him. He has before Jade told him about his whole behaviour as he has already met him by that time and felt that there was something off about Max’s behaviour around Jade.  
Beck has a few words on his lips about how he would never disrespect Jade’s child if she already had one that wasn’t his, that he loves everything about Jade and that he feels in his heart that that would include her children even if they weren’t his, and about how that’s how a soulmate is supposed to feel. But he doesn’t say anything because he knows that just like him Jade prefers to fight her own battles.  
And he feels that Jade doesn’t care about her stepfather’s words this time. Because this asshole can’t hurt her.  
“If you need to put me down, roll with it,” Jade coldly tells him. “You were never able to and you never will be.”


	11. His parents

They go out with Jade’s little brother afterwards, visit the movies with him, go to the mall and have dinner. Jade doesn’t get to spend enough time with him, with them both having school and friends and just different interests with those nine years age difference they have.  
Jasper has a few questions over dinner about them being soulmates. If that means they will marry now and Jade will move out. Jade acts as if it totally means that for a while but her little brother can see right through her and knows she’s kidding. He seems relieved when she finally says that he obviously will keep living at home until graduation – though that’s also only half a year away.  
After dinner, they decide to drop him off at home and sleep in the RV together.  
“Are you up for also telling my parents today?” Beck asks when they’re alone in the car, driving from her parents’ home to his.  
He hasn’t said it but she knows he is so ready to tell them. He wants to rub it in their faces after they even wanted to forbid him to see Jade in between – with them finding the soulmate relationship to be so special and untouchable and everything.  
Beck adds, before Jade can answer: “It’s okay if you don’t want to see them today of all days.” After all, it’s her birthday.  
But she’s fine with it. He endured her father and her stepfather. She can easily deal with his parents.

 

His parents are sitting in the living room together with some friends, when Beck and Jade walk into the house. Their friends being around is inconvenient, but well...  
They all greet each other before Beck focuses in on his parents. “I wanted to tell you that Jade’s sleeping over. It’s her birthday. Her 18th.” He lets that sink in for a few seconds but directly continues before his parents get a chance to say anything: “I’m her soulmate.”  
For a moment, time seems to stand still. His parents’ friends look surprised while his parents look as if they can’t believe it.  
“What?” his mother also promptly checks, sure she even must have misheard. She stands up, his father following suit and both coming a bit closer.  
“Her wrist says my name,” Beck clearly states and he never would’ve asked Jade to do it, but she doesn’t hesitate to hold out her arm and turn the inside of her wrist towards his parents.  
“No, it doesn’t,” his father says while they walk closer still and cautiously read Jade’s wrist.  
“It does.”  
“It can’t.”  
“Are you serious?” Beck questions them angrily.  
Both his parents stare at his name on Jade’s wrist for another moment, before his mother says, Jade letting her arm fall to her side again where Beck quickly grabs her hand and squeezes it: “You aren’t the only Beck in this world.” Which means that this must mean someone else.  
Great. “And if my wrist says ‘Jade’ in two months, you will say that stuff like Jade’s parents happen, right?”  
They found out that Jade’s parents aren’t soulmates because Jade’s mother told them about it when they wanted to talk to her and Jade’s father about the couple sleeping over at each other’s places – and Jade’s mother had to tell them that her father doesn’t have any say in it and that they are divorced.  
They made a really big deal out of it when they were alone with Beck again. As if Jade being a child out of a non-soulmate relationship meant that she wasn’t worthy of love or something. As if it was her fault or it meant that she was screwed up.  
“Beck, don’t be ridiculous,” his mother says.  
“How am I the ridiculous one? Honestly!” he angrily shoots at them, before he turns around and leaves, pulling Jade with him, without another word.  
His parents don’t call after them, probably because of their friends also around.


	12. Friends

Beck doesn’t want to go into the house for breakfast but Jade tells him that his parents will have overthought it by now and won’t be as awful as the prior night. She doesn’t like the thought of Beck getting estranged from his parents, because she knows he may talk a lot about him not caring and it being their own fault, but heck, would he care and suffer.  
His parents indeed thought it over. They apologize for what they said. Jade notices that they don’t apologize for thinking that way, just for expressing it. She’s sure Beck notices too but as they promise to never imply again that Jade couldn’t be his soulmate, he accepts it for now and doesn’t fight them.  
In school, they behave like usual. They get many suspicious looks, especially by their friends. Absolutely everybody seems to try to get a look at Jade’s wrist – which she still covers with a wristband.  
She and Beck joked about it again in the morning and Jade bet that their friends would be so nosy that they would ask about it though you don’t do that. Beck bet against her, saying that they would be curious as hell but that they wouldn’t dare to ask – not because of politeness but because they just don’t want to cross Jade.  
After having made the bet, they now of course need to see who is right.  
Their friends don’t ask. Cat asks her a few times if she’s okay and she tries to provoke her into questioning her further by asking why she shouldn’t be but Cat just laughs stupidly every time that happens.  
That goes on for the rest of the week. In those days everyone seems to have decided Jade keeping it a secret must mean that Beck isn’t her soulmate. Promptly, a lot more girls start to flirt with him again. Which is stupid. Jade also gets jealous as usual and chases them away whenever she sees, but she feels weirdly more confident doing so.  
She’s celebrating her birthday with her friends that Saturday at a Karaoke place.  
It’s there that Jade finally says: “You guys are way too polite by the way.”  
She agreed with Beck that they should finally tell – which made him smile all smugly as that made him win the bet.  
Their friends don’t know what she’s talking about all of the sudden and she continues: “You haven’t even been close to talk about soulmates in hope I would say something about mine.”  
Their friends exchange flustered looks.  
“We just didn’t want to...” Andre starts but doesn’t finish.

 

Beck sees Jade’s smirk. She likes that all four of them look a bit intimidated and uncomfortable by her calling them out. Even if it’s her calling them out on being overpolite – or really, just the normal amount of polite.  
“Wanna see their name?” Jade asks but pulls the wristband off in the same moment and offers the inside of her wrists for them to read.  
Beck doesn’t know who of his friends to look at as all kinds of reactions run over their faces.  
“It says Beck,” Tori realizes, the first one able to speak.  
“It does,” Jade confirms and Beck still likes how happy she sounds about that, not only because she also enjoys their friends’ shocked reaction.  
“And we were so worried!” Andre calls out before Cat asks: “Has it shown ‘Beck’ all along?”  
Jade rolls her eyes. “No, it has suddenly changed last night.”  
Of course, even Cat gets that that’s not true, understanding the way Jade talks so well.  
“Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Robbie asks, looking crest-fallen, not by Beck and Jade being soulmates but by not being told.  
Okay, no, Beck and Jade never wanted to hurt their friends by not telling them. Beck quickly explains: “We wanted to keep it for ourselves for a while.”  
“Do you know how worried we were?” Andre says. “We were sure you weren’t soulmates then and that one of you would explode because of it sooner or later – especially as both of you just seemed to ignore it.”  
Beck notices Jade smirking again. He shrugs. “Well...”  
Robbie’s the first to realize what this really means. “I can’t believe it. You’re actually soulmates. You’ve already found each other.”  
“Incredible,” Tori nods and now, all four of them look at them in awe.  
Beck can’t help but say: “Right?”  
It is incredible. It’s wonderful and beautiful and incredible.  
He looks at Jade, his soulmate, and when she looks back, he has to smile.


	13. Sikowitz

All of their classmates are surprised to know about Jade’s mark. Of course there are girls that choose to believe that the mark wasn’t there at first. Either there was no mark for some reason or another name – either way Jade must’ve tattoed ‘Beck’ onto there now.  
Beck calls everyone out on that thought. Jade notices that he hates to hear it, as if it would go against him, though they just want to attack Jade. She doesn’t really care.  
They’re in Sikowitz’ classroom, waiting for their teacher who’s late.  
Jade hears the two girls behind her and Beck whisper. Something about soulmates and it not being true.  
Sikowitz is just coming into the room when Beck reacts to the girls, not talking to them, but pointedly turning to Jade: “I don’t get how people can’t believe we’re soulmates. They must be blind, extremely stupid or most likely both.”  
She smirks. She’s into him getting a bit angry sometimes and acting like this. As if she wouldn’t kiss him for that.  
They get interrupted by Sikowitz: “So you finally told people you’re soulmates?”  
Jade turns to him, slowly and with furrowed eyebrows.  
“Finally?” Beck asks confused.  
“Yes, finally,” Sikowitz calls out. “About time!”  
Which makes it sound as if he has known before just now. As if he had to wait. How could he have known? Jade didn’t show her wrist in school at all over the last week. Beck and she didn’t talk about it in school except in the janitor’s closet on her birthday.  
Jade isn’t the only one wondering about Sikowitz’ words. Tori asks: “Have you known before?”  
“For years”, Sikowitz exclaims.  
“How?” Beck checks, still utterly confused.  
“No way,” Jade meanwhile says. As if he could have known for years.  
The rest of the class also looks at him unbelieving and quite a few utter similiar words, also question Sikowitz.  
Their teacher doesn’t answer them though, he instead interrupts their talking by deciding: “Up the stage, you two. Improv time!”  
He means Beck and Jade with that. Jade makes an ‘ugh’ though she likes improvising, especially with Beck and with suggestions by Sikowitz.  
She and Beck get up the stage while Sikowitz sits down in the back.  
They are supposed to be aliens visiting earth. They are only about a minute in and their visiting turns to deciding to move to earth to start their family, when Sikowitz calls the end of the scene and wants them to be neighbors fighting over the hedge between their house.  
They start out like Sikowitz asked them to but somehow transform it into a fight about the affaire the neighbors are actually having. The class starts to laugh at the innuendos, but Sikowitz interrupts once more, telling Jade to be a director and Beck to be an actor, suggesting to do a scene differently.  
Jade doesn’t let her character take the suggestion, obviously. But somehow it works to tell him to shut up and kiss her instead. And, staying in character, Beck does just that.  
“And scene,” Sikowitz calls. “Thank you.”

 

Beck and Jade sit down again with everyone applauding.  
Beck’s satisfied with the scenes they did  
Sikowitz gets to the front and sits down on the stage, turning to the whole class. “What did you guys notice?”  
A few of them have suggestions. That Jade did a different accent for each character. That Beck changed his stance for each one. That their aliens didn’t seem to come from the same planet.  
It’s Cat who happily says: “They were a couple in each scene.”  
“Exactly!” Sikowitz exclaims, jumping onto his feet again.  
Beck thought Sikowitz was just being his weird self with saying he knew for years about Beck and Jade being soulmates – and assumed he was stopping the conversation about how he should have ever known by sending the couple up the stage. But apparently it was to show everyone why he came to think of them as soulmates.  
He explains: “You all must know by now that every time you improvise, you are heavily influenced by your experience, your life. You won’t improvise to be lovers with your worst enemy if you aren’t prompted.”  
Sure. They all know that. Beck doesn’t see what that says though. He and Jade are a couple in real life and pretty much have been since they visited this school. What does it prove that they played sort of a couple in each of the three scenes now?  
Sikowitz leans forward, as if he’s letting the class in on a secret: “Now, there’s a funny thing that’s been documented for a long time. Whenever you’re asked to improvise a scene with your soulmate, you will most likely play a couple or be at least attracted to each other. Other couples also do that, just like best friends easily fall into their real dynamic, but it’s not nearly as frequently.”  
He focuses on Beck and Jade. Beck still isn’t sure if what he says holds any truth.  
“Funnily enough, Beck and Jade have even acted like a couple the first time they had to improvise, when they might’ve already started dating but weren’t a couple at all.”  
Beck needs a second but he remembers the scene. Well, yes. They have gone on a couple of dates before that scene. Only after that, Beck started thinking about wanting to make Jade exclusive.  
Sikowitz continues: “Over the course of the past few years, they have barely done a scene for me without being involved in one way or another, except if their characters absolutely couldn’t be. They never talked about it before the scene and instead just did it. Even more: They let it appear so natural that neither of you ever wondered about it, as we see.”  
Beck shortly glances to Jade, who glances back. They definitely also never noticed. Is this true?  
Beck knows Jade will make a joke about this later, that it must mean that they’re bad actors. He already smirks about it now.  
“You know when I knew for sure? When they were broken up. I let them have a month before I put them into another scene together to improvise as I didn’t want them to kill each other on stage. They played a couple.”  
“No,” Jade makes and it’s not the only unbelieving reaction, but the one that makes Sikowitz seem all gleeful.  
Beck also can’t seem to remember at first – until he can. Wait. Did they actually play a couple and didn’t even notice? Though they were pretty much at each other’s throats otherwise?  
“Yes,” Sikowitz says. “And nobody noticed, not even you two yourselves. And that’s what has been documented for forever, that soulmates also do that when they fight. That, my dear students, is how soulmates work. Let that be a lesson for us all. In relationships and in improvising!”  
He starts asking what they can take from that for improvising in the future, not just with soulmates but with everyone they know.  
Beck looks to Jade at his side again and she looks back, cocking an eyebrow. Already asking with that if he also didn’t notice and didn’t know and if he can believe it.  
He just shrugs. He wonders how much more things are documented with soulmates that neither of them knew about because there’s just so much to know about soulmates, and how many of those things could’ve eased their minds way earlier about being soulmates.  
Jade surely knows what he’s thinking about. With a smile, she pulls him into a gentle kiss.


	14. Beck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the last chapter! I can't believe that this is already over. Wow.  
> Thank you to everyone reading this and giving kudos for joining me on this journey!  
> Please have fun with this last chapter!

They lie in Beck’s bed, Beck on his back, Jade in his right arm, turned into his direction.  
His hand lies upside down on his own stomach, over the blanket, so they can both see the inside of his wrist at every second.  
It’s Beck’s birthday. The time on his birth certificate says 12:58am. It’s 12:46am.  
Jade has congratulated him to his birthday already – in a way that left them both naked in his bed. They both settled down now, under the blanket, content with each other. And yet nervous at the same time. Jade at least is. But she also can feel Beck’s heartbeat a bit too quickly under her hand that lies on his chest.  
“We spend the whole day together, right?” Beck checks. Jade’s sure it’s only to pass time.  
“If your soulmate allows it,” she says with a smirk. She needs to make a joke. This would be too nervewrecking otherwise.  
She knows they must be soulmates. Because of that feeling inside of her and because of her wrist, that already shows his name for two months.  
“I bet she will,” he responds with a smile, kissing her forehead.  
She grins: “I wouldn’t be so sure it’s a she.”  
It makes him chuckle and it’s while she feels his chuckle radiating through her body that she sees it. Something changing on his wrist.  
“Beck,” she says and his chuckle immediately dies down. He raises his left arm slightly, so they can see it better. There’s a faint word readable that grows stronger every passing second. Her name.  
They both watch it until it doesn’t get any clearer, then she turns to his face and kisses him. She grabs his wrist that says her name, grabs it firmly, as if she could feel her name on there, and kisses him again and again.  
She thought she didn’t need a soulmate before Beck came along. She didn’t even want one. But here they are. Here he is marked as hers. She feels it hurting deep inside of her in the best way possible. Noone will ever be able to take this away from her, away from them.

 

In school, Robbie, Tori and Andre congratulate Beck on his birthday when he arrives at his locker with Jade, after they went to her locker together first.  
Cat runs up to them there. “And, and, and?”  
She obviously doesn’t want to make the mistake again of not asking and instead worrying. Beck knows that this is about the name on his wrist. She wants to know if a name already appeared on his wrist and if so, if it is the one they are all expecting now.  
He grins, like he can do anything else, being marked as Jade’s, as he offers his friends his wrist to read. “It says ‘Jade’.”  
Cat squeals, but the others also yell out in joy and they all hug him and Jade. It’s almost as if they still doubted this with only Jade having his name. Well, but it could’ve been a coincidence. They didn’t feel what Beck felt since day one, what he felt grow stronger inside of him by the day, all this love.  
Everybody else obviously doubted it as well. Beck and Jade take a photo of their left wrists next to each other, with each their names upon then, and post it on TheSlap.  
Their parents finally stop doubting. Well, hers haven’t doubted it since her birthday. Her mother hugs both of them now. His parents have barely said anything in the morning, when he first told them. When all of them are home, his parents sit him and Jade down and sincerely apologize to Jade and ask for her forgiveness.  
Beck feels like he could burst out of sheer joy.  
Back in the RV, Jade is quickly all over him again. He doesn’t mind at all. He wouldn’t mind if they would never break apart again. And he loves that Jade is obviously turned on by reading her name on his wrist. He saw it in her eyes the whole day. He can’t blame her. It’s not like he feels any different about his name on her wrist.  
He’s sitting on the couch now, her on top of him, turned to him.  
After a few passionate kisses, she breathes: “Say you love me.”  
“Do I still need to say it?” he teases. Shouldn’t it all be clear by her name engraved eternally on his body? Of course he still should say it and also wants to.  
Jade pouts. “Please.”  
How can all of this be real? How can it be true? How can he actually be this lucky with Jade being his soulmate?  
“I love you, Jade.” His tone is insistent. He wants her to know that it’s the absolute truth.  
She kisses him again, before she whispers back: “I love you, too.”


End file.
